Born in Central Africa, the author grew up in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. Her own ‘Odyssey’ began quite accidentally at age nine, when, through some administrative mix-up, she was sent to boarding school a week early. Mid-journey she was dumped off the train. “Wait here Miss,” was all they said as she watched the great steam engine pull away without her, seemingly carrying with it her entire privileged British way of life. As the smoke cleared, however, she saw with joy a completely new world emerging — a bustling African village on market day, beckoning to be explored…